Team:Wellesley Desyne/zTree

From 2013.igem.org

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<h4>Results</h4>
<h4>Results</h4>
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<p>We conducted a preliminary usability study of zTree with 9 Wellesley College students. The study employed a within subjects design with the aim of comparing how students accomplished a series of simple tasks on zTree versus the Registry of Standard Biological Parts website. The students were asked to browse for a specific part, estimate the number of parts in a category, and compare two different part types.  
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We successfully allowed for double and ring bonding in zMol, and created a 3D representation of the periodic table through which it is possible to navigate, search, and zoom through elements. We also modified the atomic skins to include elemental labels. We imported data about each element so when you hover over it, more properties are displayed.
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<p>zTree is nearly fully functional when displaying the standard registry of parts - unfortunately, the site was modified towards the end of our work on zTree, so a future team will need to adjust the HTML parsing sections of our code. But, the data sheets display properly, and navigation between levels works properly. Users can export the parts they have selected to a plain text file which can be imported into other programs, such as Eugenie, for further use. The program also features an action log for user testing. A search feature in the upper right hand corner of the screen allows a user to search for a particular part they might be looking for and have its data sheet displayed.  
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<ol class="default_list">The task list was devise to:
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<li>Study the effect of zTree's carousel structure on the user’s ability to understand hierarchical relationships and estimate the size of the data space.</li>
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<li>Improve functionality and evaluate overall experience through qualitative user feedback and survey responses.</li>
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<h4>Demo</h4>
<h4>Demo</h4>

Revision as of 19:13, 24 September 2013

Wellesley HCI iGEM Team: Welcome

Wellesley HCI iGEM 2013

zTree

TOOL OVERVIEW

zTree is an interactive, 3D visualization of the Registry of Standard Biological Parts that draws upon Parc’s Cone Trees visualization technique for representing hierarchical information. The top of the hierarchy represents a particular library, with nodes drawn like index cards to represent a generic part type, marked using Synthetic Biology Open Language, or a concrete biological part. With a large data set, a 2D structure would not fit on the screen, forcing the user to scroll or resize; zTree maximizes screen real estate, thereby allowing the user to visualize the whole structure at once.

    Our goals for zTree this summer were twofold:
  1. Provide users with an intuitive, interactive way to navigate the Registry of Standard Biological Parts
  2. Make a modular enough solution so that the application can eventually be used for a wide array of data sets

Implementation

Implementation text here.

PURPOSE

Purpose text here.



Users can search by part type, such as promoter or terminator.

A second carousel appears beneath the first one to choose a more specific part type.

Choosing yet a more specific part type.
Users can then choose a specific part to view more information about it. They can also view the hierarchy of the part.

Results

We conducted a preliminary usability study of zTree with 9 Wellesley College students. The study employed a within subjects design with the aim of comparing how students accomplished a series of simple tasks on zTree versus the Registry of Standard Biological Parts website. The students were asked to browse for a specific part, estimate the number of parts in a category, and compare two different part types.

    The task list was devise to:
  1. Study the effect of zTree's carousel structure on the user’s ability to understand hierarchical relationships and estimate the size of the data space.
  2. Improve functionality and evaluate overall experience through qualitative user feedback and survey responses.

Demo



Future Work

Most features desired for zTree were completely over the course of the summer. As the registry changed, the data sheet code needs to be updated. In the future we need to make the data sheets compliant with the registry API so that the program works with any future changes. Another iGEM team seems to be working on search function which we would like to integrate into the program. Some research has gone into which type of backgrounds for the zSpace eliminate ghosting so the team would also like to try to use one of those backgrounds to improve the visualization of their program. Using the pen to navigate and spin the carousels would be a good feature for the future as well.

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